T.Rex - Slider

List of Reviewers

• Kat
• Chadders
• MarcO
• Marc Bolan
• Zoom
• David Do
• David Do 2
• Stewart
• Melinda
• Sverre
• Simes

=== Review by Kat ===

Hi gang,

Better late than never! Per Pierre's suggestion :) here is my attempt at a "review" or rather my thoughts of "The Slider."

This album has always held a "special" place in my heart, as it was the first Bolan album I ever bought! The opening fantastic raucous wail of "Metal Guru" really sets the tone of the whole album.....a primal glammed out vibe. Raw, yet still with room for more introspective songs like "Spaceball Ricochet", "Ballrooms of Mars," and the mellow groove of "Mystic Lady." Every track on this album works. Marc seems to have hit his stride, but on a more hard "rock and roll" note than the previous "Electric Warrior." "Buick Mackane" and "Chariot Choogle" are bursting with sexual energy. The "street poet" Marc is in full force here with lyrics like "New York Witch in the dungeon of the day". In all, I love it! It is a flawless moment in time. I wasn't there to witness it, and I still marvel at how things could be so different two years later! Such is the trickery of time.

But my favorite line is "Deep in My Heart, there's a house that can hold just about all of you." :-)

Anyway, those are my thoughts right now.....

Love, Kat xoxo

=== Review by Chadders ===

I see we've been moaning about 'Slider'. On the whole it's a not an album I can get on with. It's not that I haven't tried, it's not that I can't see the many splendid and wonderful things about it, no it just doesn't work for me in this form. I first heard it before I was a true believer and thought 'Slider' was a great track in a good album, then after 'Children of the Revolution' I converted to Bolan in a big way and borrowed 'Slider' for a week. Then I thought it was full of great tracks but was not a good album.

These days it drives me potty. An album with that many great to excellent songs on it should be doing more for me. What is it that's wrong? Too many overlong fade outs? I like my songs to come to an end and 'Metal Guru' cries out to end earlier. The running order? Shift it around how you like, it's still not right, I can never hear the next song coming to get me. The obvious similarity of 'Baby Strange'and 'Mystic Lady'? (by similarity I mean title, subject matter, main guitar riff and rhythm, obviously the approach to the subject, and quite possibly the key, is different; entire albums have been made out of smaller differences than that, take HearSay for example, in fact PLEASE take HearSay). Both are good songs but to put them both on one album was stupid. Maybe it's that too many songs are pushed through the mangel and it all comes out a bit too samey? But isn't that what they mean by 'a great sound'?

Anyway, lets look at the numbers. 'Metal Guru', crikey. Mystic Lady, oooaah midjear! Rock On, four on the floor. The Slider, haunting. Baby Boomerang, good times. Spaceball Ricochet, almost the old style poetry. Telegram Sam, wow. Rabbit Fighter, sorry. Baby Strange, don't I know you? Ballrooms Of Mars, just how perfect do you want your perfect? Chariot Choogle, bright. Main Man, good but much prefer the version on 'Spaceball'.

So, it's not that I don't like the components, I just don't care much for the whole.

Oh and I still say 'Ballrooms of Mars' is an answer song to 'Life on Mars'. There's the connection between the titles, both songs mention Lennon, think of a famous seventies rock star described by "gutter gaunt gangster", "changeless madman" doesn't refer to the 'Bewley Brothers' does it? Actually it was the "Lizard leather boots" that tipped me off.

love and chrisses

=== Review by MarcO ===

=== Review by Marc Bolan ===

=== Review by Zoom ===

=== Review by David Do ===

=== Review by David Do 2 ===

• It kicks off with the awesome Metal Guru Waaaahhhhhh aaaahhhhhh Yeah !!! great start to an album,
• then it chills a little with the magical Mystic Lady.
• Rock On...or the farting song as it was known by my unbelieving mates many years ago when this came on the car stereo ! Listen to the horns !
• The Slider, superfunk, phased and spaced, I can't get my head round the "coke" theory, I'd like to think it's more surreal.
• Baby Boomerang.....wow thank you ma'am.....a rock 'n' roll poem, a well used riff, but never used better than here, love the Oh yeah's...a post orgasmic sigh if I ever heard one!
• Spaceball Ricochet, nice and mellow, beautiful bass line,
• then in pops Buick Mackane and strutts her funky stuff, wicked track, but needed a much heavier treatment....smack the bitch up Bolan!
• Hmmmmmm Telegram Sam.....you're my main man..sell me some good stuff !...and I always wanted a pair of automatic shoes!
• Rabbit Fighter....nice and sleeezzzyyy does it......babe I'll rabbit fight all over you......still sends shivers...... you know it's true!!!
• Baby Strange has gotta be the most "is that a trident missile in your trousers, or are you just pleased to see me" song Marc ever wrote........I wanna get you and then.
• Ballrooms of Mars is beautiful, lizard leather loveliness.
• Chariot Choogle is a classic ,it kicks ass big style,l love the wonderful lunatic asylum deranged "Baby you know who you are" chorus!
• And so to bed, I'm afraid Main Man excites me about as much as UK Garage.

Cool album, 12 out of 13 can't be bad. It still leaves us with the question, did Marc understand the wind, well did he??

DD.

=== Review by Stewart ===

• Rock On, love that little piano intro,the phase effect on the Sax[although it is a little hissie],Marc's guitar solo is so cool, it fit's in so well,the French Horn near the end gives it such class.I can loop this song and play it over and over again a sort of Heart beat as i let it play in my head as i go about my day.
• The Slider, a really funny song to play to someone and asked them to tell you what's it about<G>.
• Baby Boomerang, another fav of mine,a real Bolan Rocker.
• Telegram Sam, one of Marc's greatest song's ever,i have posted before about this song, it just send's me into a frenzie hahaha can't really discribe it,but it has such timing in the rhythm that it is in class by its self,although it does escapes most listeners that i have played it to, i mean the rhythm thing,they like the song but don't get why, i have only heard a few songs that have this complex timing.
• Rabbit Fighter always sounded very French to me ,mabey it was because its where Marc recorded it ,anyway love his vocal's on this one and his guitar work is to die for,put's Marc up there with the worlds best[i think of him as the best guitarist].
• Baby Strange the first song i ever heard by Marc and it still has that effect on me even after all this time,i have blown [don't say Simes<G>] more speakers with this song than any other, i just love to hear this song LOUD,again Marc's dueling guitars and the best Rock drum beat of all time. It's not that i don't love the rest of the Album any less its just that i can't put into words what i feel about it.

=== Review by Melinda ===

=== Review by Sverre ===

• Yes, I love the Edsel CD editions, (although it's not the same.)
• In my early teenage years I didn't understand so much of the lyrics. I didn't understand that "Metal Guru" was a car. (Or a god????)
• I thought the Mystic Lady was the most lonely woman in the world. I don't know why. I still think so!
• "Rock On" was a "The Slider comes after this" - song.
• I didn't understand what a Slider was.
• I really liked "Baby Boomerang", but it was not a fave, far from it.
• I thought "Spaceball Ricochet" was the best song on Side one, together with "Metal Guru", "Mystic Lady" and "The Slider".
• And I never liked "Buick Mackane", - too noisy, and I didn't understand the lyric.
• I never understood who Telegram Sam was, I do know. All those strange characters in the song puzzled me then, they still do??.
• I never understood what a Rabbit Fighter was, but I loved the song. It was "bluesy" and sad, I thought. I didn't see the sexual references. And remember, I was young and innocent! <g> I especially loved that "Call me Rabbit Fighter - Jo Jo don't you know"- part with strings. A wonderful melody.
• Yes, I *did understand* the lyric to "Baby Strange" and I loved the riff and chorus and everything!
• "Ballrooms of Mars" was my fave song on Side two together with "Telegram Sam" and "Rabbit Fighter".
• "Chariot Choogle" was sooooo tough!!!
• And I thought "Main Man" was a wonderful final song.

• "Metal Guru": If I should play ONE T.Rex song for someone who didn't know T.Rex, - I would've picked this one. (Stewart, Simes, listen up!! <G>) I love the melody, the simple chords, the wild backing vocals, the bridge with a wild short solo, Marc's voice - although it is a bit deep (hidden) in the mix. "Metal Guru" is soooooo "catchy". 2.25 min of classic T.Rex, the essence of T.Rex. T.Rex in a nut-shell!!
• "Mystic Lady": I still think it is the saddest lyric on the record, I still think the Mystic Lady is a lonely lady in the Urban Jungle. (And I have a suspicion I have misinterpreted the lyric??)
• "Rock On": The weakest song, a "filler". Marc wrote it in his sleep, - I guess. One of the single B-sides around that time should've replaced it. My humble thoughts.
• "The Slider": *Maybe* the best track. Airy, pulsating, sexy - and the guitar, Oh God, - the guitar. And the voice. Pure magic!
• "Baby Boomerang": Very "T.Rex" - it has grown through the years, love it.
• "Spaceball Ricochet": My fave song, my fave lyric. (Why add anything?)
• "Buick Mackane": Still noisy, but I like it now, I didn't in 72. And side 1 ends with style.
• "Telegram Sam": Another fave. I've never really understood why? A simple melody, A-D-A chords in the verses, strange lyric. I've heard it thousands of times through the years, how is it possible? A simple tune like that?? It's the riff!! Everytime I hear the song my attention is dragged to the riff. That riff has always been a mystery to me. It's haunting!!! Those "tracks" of guitars put together, that "on beat/off beat" rhythm, - it is *very* cleverly done. I love the chorus, the "falsetto" singing, the strings. Marc's voice. The drums, the bass. Everything. Try to walk to that riff!!! Then you are close to the Beltane Walk! <g>
• "Rabbit Fighter": A bluesy sexy - "confusing lyric, love the voice, guitar and strings" - song. (Did I write that sentence? My english teacher would die!) The "guitaring" is great, - should I say brilliant?? YES!
• "Baby Strange": Pure sex, pure Bolan, lovely riff, wonderful chorus, he delivers the goods, - yes! My wife loves this song! She really does! I wonder why? <g>
• "Ballrooms of Mars": This was a fave when I was 13-14, it still is. It's too beautiful, I have nothing more to say. *This is it!!*
• "Chariot Choogle": Another sexy, classic, groovy T.Rex "jewel".
• "Main Man": And side 2 ends with style. I really like it, although it's not up there with the best. Maybe it's unfinished (sort of).

=== Review by Simes ===

• Metal Guru A single which again I had to buy later on as we hadnt the money for it when it was released. I remember a classmate at junior school told me that his parents had the single and I asked him What are the two tracks on the flip-side like? I know theyre called Lady and Thunderwing because hearing Metal Guru on the radio and seeing it on Top Of The Pops, I needed to know what the other tracks were like. Metal Guru was T. Rextasy in full flow, it was Marc at number one again and it seemed like it would go on forever.
  
  A girl at school called Janet brought me a page ripped out of a girls magazine and emblazoned on the top of the page was T.REXTASY (it may have been from Jackie). We were allowed to take toys or games into school on the last day of term and I remember having an orange Petite typewriter in a carrying case with a picture of Marc Sellotaped to the outside, taking it in and spending what seemed like hours typing T. REX T.REX T.REX again and again to cover one side of a sheet of A4 paper. (Yes, dear.)
• Mystic Lady See, the thing is that whenever I listen to the album, my mind is alway flashbacked to being ten, I cant really relate to it in adult terms, despite the many on-list breakdowns and interpretations of The Cats. It was the baby baby baby, ba dah ba dah dah dah dah and the shrieks in the background that made it all happen, Sliding Riding Sorceress in your dungarees and Pleasant crescent moon.....gorgeous.
• Rock On Mild Mouthed Rita shes a Chevy Chase Cheetah and the lovely drum rolls after each verse, it was like Marc was telling me to Rock ON, yeah yeah yeah ...like hang on in there, Sam (cos me familys nickname for me was/still is Sam). Prophet pumped the car scar deeper only sweeter.....well, I didnt know what it meant, but it meant something to me, I had visions of big American cars, those amazing things that looked like sharks with the fins at the back. (see Chariot Choogle)
• The Slider A chugging sexy track that I always thought, like Raw Ramp and Rip Off, was rude although I thought lines like I have always always grown my own, all schools are strange meant a reference to Marc hardly ever going to school after reading about it in a Disco 45 special I had. Loved the guitar picky doink doink doooink Oh, watch now, Im gonna sliiiiiiide just seemed so sexy to me.
• Baby Boomerang A deep sounding boogier, the lovely Ss at the start Slim lined sheik faced angel of the night and Mince Pie Dog Eye, it had that Beltane Walk strut to it and the wonderous lines Youre talking with your boots and youre walking with your mouth just about drove me crazy. It sounded like there was a party going off and this one always made me look at pics of Marc and try to imagine what it would be like at a concert.
• Spaceball Ricochet Initially, it was Deep in my heart theres a house that can hold just about all of you which seemed like Marc was saying Youre in this new house, new start, but take comfort in me. Book after book, I get hooked every time the writer talks to me like a friend......it seemed SO true as I have always read voraciously and when I was aged eight and me Mam died, my class teacher - obviously trying to handle me with kid gloves - said Id like to buy you a book....what do you like? Do you like horses? and I replied I like Enid Blyton and Agatha Christie and I recall her saying Agatha Christie??!! in such astonished tones, I thought I had done something wrong. So book after book, line after line, word after word, the writer DID indeed talk to me like a friend and in a logical progression, Marc talked to me like a friend. Shes a changeless angel, shes a city, its a pity that Im like me.
• Buick Mackane Full-on rocker, this had me really rockin out in front of the mirror with a cardboard guitar in my iron transfer of Marc that came free with Popswop (which later amalgamated with Record Mirror). Another song I thought was a bit rude, Slidahhh, Slidaaahhhh, youre just a sexual glider I always thought that Marc was The Slider and it was about him doing...you know, giggle giggle...rude things with ladies.
• Telegram Sam Oh, lawdy Miss Clawdy, this takes me to my sisters kitchen, one Sunday lunchtime, Radio One, Jimmy Saville (I think it was Savilles Travels......about one oclock?) and she said to me, as we came in from the garden Ive just heard the new T. Rex single, do you know what its called? - No, what? - Telegram SAM!!!....like I said earlier, to my family, ever since I was a noodle sized bijou giddy thing-ette, I have always been called Sam and even now, family and close friends from eons ago call me that. So I was Marc is talking to ME!!! What a wealth of people in there! Purple Pie Pete, Bobby who was alright and Jungle Faced Jake......he was the one. Then the Automatic shoes, automatic shoes give me 3-D vision and the California blues and the howling wolf aw - ooooh-hooo , I remember remembering hearing or reading or something about an American man called Howlin Wolf, but I thought he was a Red Indian. (Yes, dear.)
• Rabbit Fighter Another thick, dramatic song. Loved the way Marc sang Tying bolts of lightning to his head and pronouncing it lightnin-d The tramp king of the city reminded me of the old rhyme from junior school Hark! Hark! The dogs do bark, the beggars are coming to town, some in rags and some in tags and one in a velvet gown. I saw a dude unscrewed and badly burned.... I found that line a bit disturbing as I have always had a deep fear of fire and burning buildings / burned out buildings. Loved the dude unscrewed bit and especially the anthemic Call me rabbit fighter, oh, oh, Jo Jo, dontcha know? and the swirly curly guitar licking around in the back, then the laugh in the fade-out, like Marc was having some kind of joke on someone.
• Baby Strange Already known as a flip-side track, but I thought this was just SO sexy, not just cos of the lyrical content, but it made me think of dirty back alleys, dustbins and ferns growing from a dank passageway at the back of a factory.....at night. That image stays with me every time I hear Baby Strange
• Ballrooms Of Mars Diamond hands stacked with roses......what imagery! In recent years, Rickster, when I hear Ill call you Thing just when the moon sings I sing Its Miss Thing, actually ;-) ...and place your face in stone upon a head of stars, a lovely tribute and song of undying devotion. At school I would say My favourite planet is Mars. Not that I was asked What is your favourite planet? but just cos Marc wrote Ballrooms Of Mars, like I would say My favourite colour is crimson cos I read a thing about Marc where he stated crimson was his fave colour. Before I used to say crimson, I used to say Potassium Permangenate Purple.....not that Marc ever wrote that (to my knowledge) but....well....you get an insight into The Mind Of A Giddy Rarn Childe as a child! You talk about day, Im talkin bout night-time, when monsters call out the names of men....Dark, dark, dark...then backed up with There are things in night that are better not to behold......the name checks of Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Alan Freed........Freed was also known as Moondog (see Rabbit Fighter) and also the Northern Irish new-wavey band in the late 70s The Moondogs (one of their singles scraped the UK charts Gotta Tell Mary) said they were named after that line, I recall reading in an interview. John Lennon knows your name and Ive seen his. I thought it meant he had seen Lennons .....you know!! His....Thingy! (But then again, I would, wouldnt I?!)
• Chariot Choogle Youre like the planets when you move.......reminded me of Holsts The Planets at junior school when we did this thing Movement To Music (also loved swishing around like a wild thang to Hall Of The Mountain King). I never realised that a two-finned Caddy was a Cadillac initially. It was a mess of rock and roll 50s USA, Blue Suede Shoes and later stuff, very sexy, Standing on the porch, you wear your pleasure like a torch made me think of wooden houses with the front porch and a sexy lady stood there all sultry and smouldering in the late summer nights, with Cicadas chirping away in the background. Hiding in the road like a Pasolini toad......I thought A Pasolini Toad was a species of toad at that tender age of ten! Gonna give up all my load and go Oooooh, yeah......well, only shortly later on did I realise what that meant!
• Main Man A definite last track of the LP song. Used to love Heaven is hot babe, everso, everso, heaven is hot, babe, watch it glow because it seemed like a mix between what we were taught at school about Heaven and Hell, heaven was supposed to be all white and silvery and cool and gentle and hell was supposed to be burning and molten lava and horrible, I remember reading those lines and listening to them with interest, because I was always totally unreligious and raised in a totally unreligious house, a disbeliver but it seemed more like a fairytale sorta thing, like The Hut Of Baba Yaga (which FASCINATED and impressed me at junior school, the hut with chickens legs etc., much like Marcs writing did when it hit me).
  
  There was a spacey feel to Main Man with all the high pitched backing vocal. I wonder if Are you a god, man - are you a frog, man was like saying Were all here, living NOW, human, so whatever you are, it doesnt matter, just get on with it and also Is there a sane man anywhere?.....well, is there? The one thing back then in 1972 was As a child I laughed a lot, now it seems I cry a lot, oh tell me true, dont you because at that age, it seemed like I was much older than when me Mam died, I felt SO much older and to me it was like Before: it was all laughter and Now: sadness and disruption.